THE DOZENS OF NEOLOGISMS AND ANGLICISMS, ESPECIALLY FOOD TERMS OF WORLDWIDE FAME, ARE PUTTING THE WEALTH OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE AT RISK. THE LATEST ONE IS NUTELLA, SAID THE ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL STATE OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE, IN FLORENCE

The overuse of unlikely neologisms and Anglicisms risks forgetting the importance and wealth of the Italian language, which instead has itself enriched other languages with its hundreds of terms, many of which are not translatable, especially when it comes to food - like pizza, spaghetti, cappuccino, perhaps the best known Italian words in the world.
Many others have become household words in recent years, particularly industrial brands, starting with Nutella, which has achieved fame equal only to that of Vespa. These are the words of the linguist Claudio Marazzini, president of the Accademia della Crusca, who spoke on the theme "The Italian language and creativity: brands and costumes, fashion and design" addressed to the assembly of the General State of the Italian Language Assembly in Florence (www.accademiadellacrusca.it).

“The Italian language dominates the worlds of fashion, design, music, art and culture", said the president of the oldest Italian academy in charge of safeguarding the purity of the idiom of Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio. There are more and more people wanting to study Italian in the world: 2.2 million in 116 countries. The Foreign Ministry would like to double these numbers, with the help of a website dedicated to the Italian language, because Italian style as we have learned, painfully, through the sad phenomenon of Italian sounding, attracts consumers who are willing to pay up to 9% more for a product with an Italian name.
“There are internationalized Italian words that have generated great interest and have changed their meaning somewhat, but then have come back to us in a similar way”, observed Marazzini, “for example, "design" signifying technical design meant for objects. Then there are industrial brands, invented in Italy, which have conquered the world, thanks to their Italian sound: Vespa or Nutella”. What is the state of the Italian language in the world today? “The status of a language is not measured on the number of words that are circulated, but the interest and love that a language can raise”, concluded the president of the Accademia della Crusca.
“It is the quality of loan words that has a specific value and in this respect the Italian language is enjoying good health and prestige”.